Financial Times 15,936 by PHSSTHPOK

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Elegant clueing and some very smooth surfaces in today’s offering.

I thought I was in for it this morning, with an almostly completely barren first pass, but the Down clues proved more tractable and I ended up enjoying this very much. Thanks to PHSSTHPOK. There’s a name that rolls off the tongue.

completed grid
Across
1 VEGGIES Fights to eat animal product? They don’t. (7)
  VIES (‘fights’) contains GG (an ‘animal’), with a cryptic whole clue def.
5 SPRUCE Wood trim (6)
  Double definition.
8 CHASTENED Edward chased virgin and was scolded (9)
  NED (‘Edward’) after CHASTE (‘virgin’).
9 CENTS Some change medical specialism to disrupt poison gas (5)
  E[ar] N[ose] & T[hroat] in CS (‘poison gas’).
11 OTHER Describing article alternatively comprehended? (5)
  OR (‘alternatively’) surrounds THE (‘article’), with whole clue cryptic again. Stylish.
12 TO THE HILT Where blade should be fixed completely (2,3,4)
  Another D.D.
13 SIDEREAL Team not made up of stars (8)
  SIDE (‘team’) + REAL (‘not made up’).
15 SCAMPI Hoax animal mostly is seafood (6)
  SCAM (‘hoax’) + incomplete PIg.
17 IMPACT Knock politician for blocking one piece of legislation (6)
  MP in 1 ACT.
19 LIVEBLOG Could some reflection of Gogol be vilified by contemporary journalism? (8)
  Reversed inclusion in ‘goGOL BE VILified’.
22 COLOSTRUM Milk for baby colt might initially sour if curdled (9)
  Anagram (‘curdled’) of COLT, SOUR & 1st letter of Might.
23 DONOR Angel Metatron’s closing portal on both sides (5)
  N (‘closing’ letter of ‘metatroN’) enclosed by DOOR (‘portal’).
24 EXTRA Run over (5)
  D.D., an ‘extra’ being worth (usually) one run in cricket.
25 FUNDAMENT Good-time girl not short of love for Fanny (9)
  FUN DAME (‘good-time girl’) + NT (= NoT lacking its 0 or ‘love’). Without going into anatomical detail, I think and Chambers confirms that the usage here is American.
26 TENSOR Decimals or some other mathematical concept (6)
  TENS (decimals) + OR. Chambers informs us that a tensor is “A mathematical … entity [whose] components depend … on the choice of a co-ordinate system.” I am none the wiser but better informed.
27 SWARTHY Skin disfigurement concealed in pitch black (7)
  WART in SHY (to throw or ‘pitch’).
Down
1 VICIOUS CIRCLE Cleric might be the answer to this negative feedback (7,6)
  Reverse anagram (‘vicious’) of CLERIC.
2 GNASHED Ground for breaking up? She’d nag (7)
  Anagram (‘breaking up’) of SHE’D NAG.
3 IFTAR Religious meal provided by sailor (5)
  IF (‘provided’) + TAR (‘sailor’), for a Moslem’s literal ‘break fast’.
4 SAND TRAP How to make strap for protection around hole (4,4)
  S AND TRAP make ‘STRAP’. Another Americanism: we’d usually say ‘bunker’, of course.
5 SEDATE Not standing down in advance is dignified (6)
  SEATED with D[own] moved up the batting order.
6 RECHERCHE Peculiar revolutionary repeatedly claimed right to follow religious education (9)
  R[eligious] E[ducation] precedes CHE (Guevara, ‘revolutionary’) x2 around R[ight].
7 CONFIRM Authorise fraud on company (7)
  CON [fraud] + FIRM (‘company’).
10 SITTING PRETTY Successful model might be doing this (7,6)
  Whole-clue cryptic.
14 RICKSHAWS Richard Sheridan started accepting playwright gigs (9)
  RICK + S(heridan), 1st letter, with (G.B.) SHAW inserted.
16 AILMENTS Complaints result from horrible mail sent (8)
  Anagram (‘horrible’) of MAIL SENT.
18 PALETTE Help to paint female friend? (7)
  On the pattern of ‘ladette’, presumably.
20 LENIENT Forgiving destruction of headless sentinel (7)
  Anagram (‘destruction’) of ‘headless’ sENTINEL.
21 PREFER Desire soft touch (6)
  P[iano], ‘soft’ + REFER (to ‘touch’ on).
23 DRAMA Play with first labelled whisky sample? (5)
  The first glass at a whisky-tasting might be called ‘Dram A’.

*anagram

8 comments on “Financial Times 15,936 by PHSSTHPOK”

  1. What an embarrassment of riches. Two Grant blogs on the site for the price of one as I post this – don’t know if one will be removed later.

    Similar to Grant, this looked as though it was going to be very difficult on the first run through, but it then fell into place without too many hold ups. I couldn’t parse SEDATE, which is so simple now of course, and had no idea about TENSOR which I put in from the wordplay. After reading Wikipedia on the subject, I’m now both none the wiser and even less informed!

    Liked the RICKSHAWS for ‘gigs’ and the ‘female friend’. Always good to see the “makes you sound clever” RECHERCHE. Haven’t had the opportunity to use it lately but this is a reminder it’s about time to wheel it out.

    Thanks to Grant x2 and Phssthpok

  2. WordPlodder

    Thanks for the heads-up re the double post. I have removed the one that doesn’t have any comments added to it.

  5. Thanks PHSSTHPOK and GB

    I enjoyed this a lot, finding it quite straightforward apart from the last couple.

    However, the pedant in me has quibbles with two of the definitions.

    In 1A, most vegetarians are ovo-lacto, ie they eat eggs and dairy products, it’s dead animals that are off the menu: vegans are the ones that eat no animal products at all.

    And in 9 I dispute that CS gas is poisonous: it’s certainly an irritant, but if it were poisonous numerous rowdy demonstrations would have been the site of mass slaughter.

  6. For me, this was a combination of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and so I’m not with those who loved this crossword.

    8ac (CHASTENED) must go down as the ugliest clue of the year.  It contains ‘chased’ which is two thirds of the answer!  On top of that there is the completely misplaced use of the past tense. ‘Chased’ should be ‘chasing’ and ‘was’ is even worse. ‘Chastened’ was ‘scolded’?  There is another example of that in 6d, ‘claimed’ should be ‘claiming’.  I know, most solvers and some setters and editors cannot be bothered. In the past couple of months I had some email contact with three proefessional setters, among others, about this issue and they were very clear. All three of them.

    I find 11ac (OTHER) a bit of an odd clue, as if there is something superfluous.  Both ‘describing’ and ‘comprehended’ (although the past tense, again) could be the containment indicator.

    19ac (LIVEBLOG) is also odd. Its build-up is: “Could WORDPLAY by DEFINITION?” That’s not proper English.

    As a mathematician, I hadn’t heard of TENSOR but I know what ‘decimals’ are. Are they really ‘tens’?

    And now the Good part.  There were many excellent clues too! I especially would like to mention: 1ac, 25ac, 27ac, 1d, 4d, 10d, 14d and 18d.

    So, when I said the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, then it is in that particular order.

    Many thanks to Grant & PHSSTHPOK

     

  7. Thanks to PHSSTHPOK and Grant B. I arrived too late to get the double blog. I too got off to a very slow start. I did parse ISTAR without knowing the term and also struggled with COLOSTRUM and TO THE HILT, but I knew SAND TRAP, enjoyed PALETTE, and, though misled initially, ended with CENTS.

  8. Thanks Phhsthpok and Grant

    Good puzzle that was slow to get going on, until I got EXTRA and then SIDEREAL to get the ball rolling.

    Agree with passerby@3 with regard to VEGGIES.  Also did not parse SEDATE either … doh !

    DECIMAL can mean ‘numbered or ordered in groups of ten’, so reckon that TENS is pretty fair.  Did do a double take with CHASTENED much the same as Sil though.

    Even with that, it was a pleasure to do … and exceeded the coffee time a little in getting it done.

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